DE 10 2010 053 156 A1 describes a driver assistance system for the autonomous control of a motor vehicle in a collision hazard. The driver assistance system includes a source of information for detecting an object in the surroundings of the motor vehicle, a control device for generating steering, commands, which is connected to the source of information, and a first actuating drive for adjusting a steering angle on a steerable wheel of the motor vehicle corresponding to the steering commands. When an object is detected, the control device generates a steering command, which leads to a rapid evasive movement of the vehicle. When the driver assistance system is inactive, a superimposition gear couples a rotation of the steering wheel with given transmission ratio to a pivot movement of the steerable wheels. When the driver assistance system is active and activates the first actuating drive in order to evade an object, it simultaneously activates a second actuating drive on the superimposition gear so that the rotary movement of the steering wheel becomes less than when the driver would steer the evasive maneuver manually, without intervention of the driver assistance system, or the steering wheel may even remain unmoved. This is to eliminate the risk that the driver's hands are injured when the driver assistance system carries out a brief steering intervention that is not expected by the driver.
New types of driver assistance systems are to relieve the driver from steering not only in exceptional situations that are closely limited in time but also over extended periods of time of uncertain duration, for example when travelling in convoy or on the highway. In order to fulfill this task, a driver assistance system has to continuously pick up information regarding the course of the road ahead of the vehicle, the position of the vehicle on the road and the correct the travelling direction with the help of this information. The advantage of the driver assistance systems with respect to the manual steering is that they are able to process the available information substantially faster than a human driver and can perform corrective steering movements with a substantially higher frequency than the same. For safety reasons, these frequent steering movements are undesirable: a trembling of the steering wheel resulting from this rather gives the vehicle occupants a feeling of insecurity.